Cable attachments



1970 H. o. DOHMEIER CABLE ATTACHMENTS Filed May 6, 1968 IPA/SW02 Hal-4sOm :Dw-Msum/ Mme mm United States Patent 3,490,106 CABLE ATTACHMENTSHans O. Dohmeier, 30 Van der Merwe St., Hillbrow, Johannesburg,Transvaal, Republic of South Africa Filed May 6, 1968, Ser. No. 726,863Int. Cl. F16g 11/02; F16b 7/00; E04h 12/20 US. Cl. 24-123 8 ClaimsABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to cable attachmentswhereby wire rope slings may be formed or ancilliary equipment securedto the ends of such ropes.

Wire rope slings are very widely used throughout industry and such wireropes also often have ancilliary equipment secured to the ends thereof.One such latter instance is in the anchor bolt assembly for a flexiblesupporting eye in underground mining operations.

Generally slings are made by splicing the wire rope which, While veryeffective in use, is an extremely laborious and time consuming method ofmanufacture. The use of aluminium alloy collars around the wire rope andswaged thereon has also been used with considerable success but suchsleeves are also expensive and require considerable swaging pressures.

In an endeavour to find alternative constructions to obtain the desiredresults in a less expensive and speedier manner it has been found thatcontrary to expectations a particular material has proved mosteffective.

In accordance with this invention there is provided a wire ropeattachment means comprising a collar of malleable cast iron.

It will be understood that the term malleable cast iron is used in thisspecification to include spheroidal graphite cast iron and other castmetals having similar physical properties but in particular includesboth blackheart and whiteheart malleable iron.

The invention also provides a method of forming attachment means on wireropes comprising forming a loop at the rope end, threading the rope andthe folded back end thereof in an oval shaped collar of malleable ironand swaging the collar to secure the loop at the end of the wire rope.

A preferred form of this invention will be described below withreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional elevation of the collar,

FIG. 2 a plan of the collar,

FIG. 3 a sectional view of an alternative wall shape of the collar,

FIG. 4 a view of the collar swaged onto a wire rope to form an eye, and

FIG. 5 a section on line AA in FIG. 4.

As shown the end of a wire rope sling 1 is manufactured by' the castingin malleable iron of a collar 2 having an oval shaped periphery 3 andbore 4. The latter is of a size so that the collar 2 may be slipped overthe folded end 5 and adjacent portion 6 of the wire rope when the ropeis prepared to form the sling eye 7 at one or both ends.

From FIG. 2 it will be seen that the bore through the collar carriesoppositely disposed longtiudinally extend ing rounded protrusions 8centrally located in the bore 3.

3,490,106 Patented Jan. 20, 1970 These facilitate the complete bindingof the collar to the wire rope when swaged as described below.

FIG. 3 illustrates the tapering of the walls of the collar and this isdone to show a simple manufacture as such castings are easier towithdraw.

With the collar 2 in position a simple swaging operation is effected tobring the collar to a substantially circular shape and swage it onto thetwo parts of the rope. As a result of this operation two surprisingresults are achieved. Firstly it is found that, at insofar as collarsfor wire ropes of up to diameter are concerned, less effort is requiredwith the malleable iron collar to effect the swaging than is necessarywith an equivalent known form of aluminium collar and secondly the irondeforms very effectively into the intersticies between the outer strandsof the rope and rope part to give a highly satisfactory locking of therope parts into the desired eyeshaped end.

Another satisfactory application of the use of a malleable cast ironcollar is in the attachment of the shank of an anchor bolt assembly to acable end for securing a cable to a rock face. It has been found thatsuch a collar can be made integral with part of the anchor bolt assemblyand may be readily swaged onto the end of the cable to form a very firmattachment therewith. Such an arrangement is also particularlysatisfactory where recoverable roof bolt assemblies are used in miningoperations.

More particularly it has been found that collars made of eitherblackheart or whiteheart malleable iron can be used very satisfactorilythough the collar of whiteheart malleable iron can be made shorter thanthat for a collar of blackheart material for the same strength.

For an eye to be formed on a standard A2" diameter wire rope a collar ofB58 310 grade 22/14 blackheart malleable iron is made to a length of 1%"and has an oval bore therethrough the larger dimension of the bore being1 and the smaller dimension being The wall thickness of the collar ismade It is found that when this collar is in position and swaged down toan outside diameter of for practical purposes 7 and length of 2 then,under test, the strength of joint was found to exceed the tensilestrength of the cable. The swaged length of the collar can vary alimited amount depending on the hardness of the cable and collarmaterial.

With a collar of B58 309 Grade 1 whiteheart malleable iron for the samepurpose was found to require a length of only 1%" to give the samestrength when the other dimensions were also kept the same as those forthe blackheart iron.

The invention provides means whereby wire rope slings and otherattachments to wire ropes can be very inexpensively manufactured whilemaintaining all necessary physical requirements for such articles.

It is also found that the collar is effective with both solid or fibrecored wire ropes.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A wire rope attachment means comprising a collar made from malleablecast iron, said collar being substantially oval in cross section withthe outer surface defined by straight side portions and semi-circularend portions, said collar having a smooth-walled bore therethrough, thecontour of said bore substantially following the contour of the outersurface but with oppositely disposed longitudinally extending roundedprotrusions provided down the central part of the straight sidedportions defining thickened Walls of the collar at the straight sidedportions, said collar cross-sectional shape being constant throughoutthe length of the collar, and said thickened walls and saidsemi-circular ends of said collar causing said collar when swaged onto awire rope passed through its bore to have a smooth circular crosssectionat its outer surface with the inner surface being deformed into andaround the wire rope passed through its bore.

2. A wire rope attachment means comprising a collar made from malleablecast iron, said collar being substantially oval in cross section withthe outer surface defined by straight side portions and semi-circularend portions, said collar having a smooth-walled bore therethrough, thecontour of said bore substantially following the contour of the outersurface but with oppositely disposed longitudinally extending roundedprotrusions provided down the central part of the straight sidedportions defining thickened walls of the collar at the straight sidedportions, said collar gradually diminishing at the outside diameter fromone end to the other whereby the collar outer surface is tapered towardone end, and said thickened walls and said semi-circular ends of saidcollar causing said collar when swaged onto a wire rope passed throughits bore to have a smooth circular crosssection at its outer surfacewith the inner surface being deformed into and around the wire ropepassed through its bore.

3. A wire rope attachment as claimed in claim 1 in which the collar ismade from whiteheart malleable iron. 25

which the length of the collar is more than twice the diameter of thewire rope with which it is to be used.

6. A wire rope attachment as claimed in claim 2 in which the collar ismade from whiteheart malleable iron. 7. A wire rope attachment asclaimed in claim 2 in which the collar is made from blackheart malleableiron. 8. A Wire rope attachment as claimed in claim 2 in which thelength of the collar is more than twice the diameter of the wire ropewith which it is to be used.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 291,693 1/1884 Cole. 2,327,6838/1943 Warner. 2,945,457 7/ 1960 Avery 17479 X 3,204,310 9/1965 Rohland.

FOREIGN PATENTS 749,597 1/1967 Canada.

770,849 11/ 1967 Canada.

728,820 12/ 1942 Germany. 1,029,200 4/ 1958 Geritiafiy.

BERNARD A. GELAK, Primary Examine? US. Cl. X.R; 287-78

